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Ulossi Confederacy
For information on the Ulossi species, see here. Minister Agrin'dal tugged thoughtfully on his chin tendrils as his eyes scanned the datapad in front of him, not actually assimilating any information as he scrolled through the dozens of reports, requests and invitations his assistant had compiled for him. The captain's quarters, which he had been so graciously gifted by the commanding officer of the ''Boolin ''warship in which he now travelled, was far more spartan than he was accustomed; the walls were bare steel, the hard chair was bolted to the floor, the desk had almost no adornment, just a weak lamp and a medal encased in a frame. The elder Ulossi sighed as he slumped back, closing his eyes in the brief moment of respite. "Anomaly detected! All hands to stations!" came a voice from the data pad in the Minister's hand, which he dropped as he sprung up from the chair, his hand dashing across his wrist mounted terminal to simultaneously demand a report from the bridge and begin a cycle of energy stims to wake him up. The crew of the ship proved to be faster in reacting than the Minister's body as they began to feed him reams of data which he glanced as at he made his way deeper into the ship, towards the command bridge deep within its hull. When Agrin'dal arrived in the darkened control room filled with Ulossi officers staring intently at a myriad of screens and consoles, his eyes however fixed themselves on the main screen. It showed a blue speck, the camera drones approaching from multiple angles providing a direct feed to the target, a spiralling whirl of energy contained within a series of rings and beams of light. '' ''"Minister. The primitives have completed an estimated 90% of the artificial wormhole gate. What are your orders?" asked the warship's captain, standing to attention with his hands behind his back. The blue speck came into focus, details of the advanced construction were evident, it must have taken decades of planning and effort to even begin to build such a device. Around it crawled dozens of vessels and humanoids in exosuits, tending to the young tear in space's needs, a marvel of engineering and science. '' ''"Destroy it." Agrin'del ordered firmly, sending his command codes to the bridge. With the final word; confirmed. The ''Boolin ''fired blinding array of missiles, lasers and projectile weaponry, built to end empires unleashed upon the final pinnacle of a people's scientific accomplishments, striking them before their limited instruments could detect, the final strike of an atomic weapon annihilating the last traces of the gate with secondary explosions tearing the camera drones apart, with only a shuddering of the hull the final confirmation of its destruction. '' The Ulossi Confederation, or just Confederation or even again, ConFed, is the name taken by the collective governing bodies of the majority of the Ulossi people. Spread across dozens of star systems and sectors, with the centre of its power located in the Ballad sector from which it began, the Confederation represents billions of its citizens in the Circle and beyond. History ''The following extract is taken from an article writing by ex-Observer Jeros Senn entitled: ''The Ulossi and What's Wrong with Them, ''banned in the Confederation and considered a racist diatribe by many, it remains however one of the most popular pieces written on the Ulossi and their history outside of the race's own writers. The history of an entire race is by no means a feat any historian should even begin to attempt to relay to a reader, as even trying to find a beginning to such a monolithic task would be a matter of more debate and letters written in anger to my editor. But, you the reader say, this article is not about the Ulossi race it is about the Confederation, two linked but different things. But, myself the writer replies, the fact that you say this shows your inherent ignorance of the Ulossi race, where their own history and that of their Confederation are written in tandem, one and the same back into prehistory. Beginning in ancient times with philosophers and warriors, onto times of kings and gods, of statesmen and peasants, then to times of wondrous machines and medical miracles all culminating in a few brief moments when astronomers discovered evidence of aliens across the stars spurring the creation of spacecraft and eventually warships. All terribly interesting but so dense a narrative in its reading as Ulossi historians (who up until now have been the only ones writing Ulossi history) have created (mainly to teach to Confederation children in schools), which is not the history you want or frankly even deserve to be subjected to. Instead I will write the history that you care about, the recent stuff, as well as some of the stuff you do not necessarily need to known, but will help you if you find yourself wanting to avoid sticking your foot or other appendages in your mouth at an Ulossi dinner party (not that they have many, but it is better to be safe than sorry). Civil War We begin where no Ulossi historian has, the end. The end in the sense that it is after this point that the Ulossi people, without knowing it, committed themselves to the road to becoming a galactic player, heralding in the demise of their Fabled Former Federation. A conflict that lasted for a decade, though a small oft neglected section of Ulossi historians would argue far longer, in which the Ulossi race saw their first instances of Megadeath (mass killings on a planetary scale), a trend that would unfortunately stay with the race until the Peace. At this point in their history the Ulossi race has becoming a major player in their home region of Ballad, encountering numerous alien races, some of which it came into conflict with such as the Marabin, came to relatively peaceful understanding with such as the near omnipresent Humans or joined into a client relationship with such as with the seldom seen Zuun. A Brief Word on the Former Federation The Former Federation was the precursor to the Confederation, the borders of which were marked by how far the average Ulossi warship could reliably reach within a set time from a garrison. It was administered from the Ulossi homeworld of Enul, with communication networks utilising ships travelling back and forth daily with updates from the Federation's Ministry answering the concerns and setting policy across its empire. Though initially created by the many different nations and countries that had existed on Enul, these abstract boundaries set on maps of their homeworld soon became irrelevant to the colonists of the Federation. The need for a single unifying factor to quell civil disobedience, renegade colonies and the rise of piracy. The answer came in an unexpected form, religion. The Cult of the Federation as it has become known today took its roots in the inner colonies, spreading from there to the outer worlds and the home system. The exact doctrine and facets of that faith are, like much of Ulossi culture, quite dry so they are best left to further reading, what is important for this article is that the religion focused the power of the Federation into the hands of a theocratic elite and out of the hands of the semi-democratic Ministry. Ships spread from Enul delivering the words of priests and prophets on crusades against rebel colonies and defiant aliens. The Hashoon Heresy By this point the only thing remaining of the Former Federation was its bones, a framework for the priesthood to administer the empire with, worlds turned into bishoprics by an ever expanding corrupted theocracy. It was during the height of its power, that the focus of this theocracy (still calling itself the Federation), was drawn towards the tiny backwater planet of Hashoon. Here a meeting of concerned colonists and military figures originally meant to discuss a slight change to taxation (and to celebrate the birthday of the famous poet and letter writer Ingrin Smol) was deemed heretical by the local bishop (some say he was slighted by not being invited to Smol's party) and several arrests were made, the offenders promptly released after only a few hours. This however became a catalyst moment that spread across the Former Federation, suddenly dissent and rebellion sprung up across the once stable empire, many of those at Hashoon were turned into heroes and some found themselves thrust into leadership roles as the Federation scrambled to silence anyone who could be used to rally behind. The Revolution As the heading above would suggest, the attempts to put down the rebellion failed, with yesterday's terrorist becoming the freedom fighter of today. Though few from the original incident at Hashoon survived the transition, they were lauded as symbols of freedom and liberty, with titles and planets gifted to them in the new order. The theocratic doctrine of the previous administration was abolished and a move towards a more democratic system of governing was hashed out over a brief period of chaos, with the final result being the Confederation, invoking a sense of evolution as well as continuity, both much loved by the Ulossi. The Gateway Wars Following the Confederation's declaration of existence, the Empire of Good Intentions that it was found itself with a patchwork of worlds, pockmarked with scorched worlds and graveyards and many alien races along their borders that they had only a few years ago declared holy war against. Reconciliation became the order of the day for the Confederation, one of its first Universal Laws (effectively the set constitution that each division of the empire has to adhere to in order to maintain its place within it) being that no alien race shall be engaged without authorisation from the Ministry (which was now comprised of representatives of every Ulossi colony rather than just the nations of Enul). After a few generations of relative peace, the Confederation encountered its first real test. Aliens from another sector of space, the beginnings of a colonisation effort had hurled themselves across the stars and began to seize the worlds of the Ulossi and their client races. The true name of this race is not known as none of them have ever been captured alive nor have they communicated beyond the declaration they they are the Vanguard of the Offspring. This faction was far more powerful than the Ulossi warships of the time, but numbers and the communication links established through the Ballad region allowed to rapid response from many vessels whenever a Vanguard fleet arrived from beyond known space. A turning point in the war came with the discovery that another race in Ballad had been experimenting with technology to send starships across the stars via gates, the first of these was regarded as a failure, but further research has revealed that it was those first explorers that alerted the Vanguard to the presence of habitable worlds in Ballad and thus triggered their invasion. Utilising these gates (which the Ulossi seized unlawfully), a task force was established to be deployed against the threats posed by extra-sector threats unknown to the Ulossi. This was the beginning of the modern day Confederation Fleet, giving almost complete autonomy outside of Ballad, this fleet successful protected the Confederation for nearly a hundred years, entire battlegroups sacrificing themselves to destroy hostile gateways, not only against the Vanguard though they were the face of the "enemy" as the Confederation's citizens were informed. The final conflict of the Gateway Wars was the infamous conflict between the Ulossi and the Orvaq, an event that you can read about elsewhere, but suffice to say the outcome has created the modern galactic situation, for good or ill. The Peace of Pillar With the first millennial of the Peace of Pillar approaching, many better writers have given extensive analysis on the events surrounding the actions of Commander Sohal, though seldom is the event presented from the Confederation's point of view. Many presume that the actions of Sohal were ordered by the Confederation, that the Ulossi had long sought to end the conflict and establish the Circle, but nothing could be further from the truth. In reality, the hand of the Confederation was forced, just as the Orvaq's was, the Ministry was just as happy to have a long drawn out war happening in some other sector space to use as a scapegoat, just as long as it did not disrupt the daily life of the majority of their citizens. They could not however condemn Sohal, he was a hero beloved by the people, and so they backed up his threats and sent in diplomats to try and limit the damage, unfortunately for the Ministry many of those sent to negotiate were a younger generation caught up in ideals of democracy and freedom for all, which ended up committing more than even Sohal could have dreamed up as the Confederation Fleet Exploratory Fleet found itself now upholding the Peace of Pillar, stretched between two sectors of space connected through gates.